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8 amazing websites you didn’t know existed and need to check out

With the number of active websites on the Internet today now approaching 1 billion, there are no shortage of incredibly cool and useful sites which have fallen through the cracks and aren’t as well-known as they should be. To help remedy that, ever so slightly, we’ve complied a list of awesome, quirky, and helpful websites that you most likely haven’t heard of before. From creating animated GIFs in a snap to finding the best prices on airline tickets, many of these sites are certainly bookmark worthy.

First up we have GifYouTube.com. As the name implies, this site makes it incredibly simple to create an animated GIF from any YouTube video of your choosing. Simply paste in a YouTube URL and you’re presented with the following customization options; you can select where in the video clip you’d like the GIF to begin and how long it should be in duration. What’s more, the site lets you title the GIF and even add captions to the finished product as well. With the web more GIF heavy than ever before, GifYouTube provides a superbly simple way to create your own in just a few seconds.

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messi gif creation

2. Skiplagged

Looking to travel somewhere? Anywhere? Well make sure to keep skiplagged.com on your radar. This handy little site makes it easier for travelers to discover secret airline fares that aren’t typically accessible via traditional travel websites. In short, the website can help you conquer the strange pricing strategies airlines typically employ by finding strange loopholes.

As The Telegraph explained a few months ago:

The idea is that travellers wanting to fly from Dallas to Los Angeles, for example, are instructed to book a flight to an alternative destination, say San Francisco, with a stopover in Los Angeles. They then don’t bother to take the last leg of their journey.

In many scenarios, this type of strategy, dubbed hidden city ticketing, can save travelers quite a bit of cash.

As another example, Skiplagged will help you find instances where two individual one-way tickets comes out cheaper than a single roundtrip ticket.

Interestingly, United and Orbitz were so threatened by Skiplagged that they sued the site’s founder, a 22 year old named Aktarer Zaman, a few months ago. That lawsuit was subsequently dismissed on a technicality, but future lawsuits might ensue. In the meantime, make sure to check out the site if booking a trip at any point in the near future.

3. HotelWiFiTest

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hotelwifitest

In this day and age, staying at a hotel with either expensive or spotty Wi-Fi is simply a non-starter for many travelers. That being the case, simply hop on over to hotelwifitest.com and you can figure out ahead of time which hotels have the best Wi-Fi connections and, just as important, which hotels provide free Wi-Fi connectivity. There is, after all, a huge difference between being able to casually check your email and being able to stream a few Netflix shows with no lag.

Even better, HotelWiFiTest lets users sort hotels in your area by overall hotel rating (as provided by TripAdvisor) and even overall Wi-Fi speed.

4. GetHuman

There are few things more frustrating than calling up customer service and trying to navigate through a maze of phone prompts before being able to talk with, gasp!, an actual human. To alleviate this, GetHuman.com is a valuable tool insofar that it give you the full scoop on which buttons to press or what phrases to say in order to get to an actual representative as quickly as possible. This can be a tremendous time saver, especially for certain companies (ahem, DirecTV) that tend to put you on hold for what seems like an eternity.

Notably, GetHuman has phone workarounds for all types of companies, from tech companies and airlines to cable providers and banks.

5. WornOnTv

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jake peralta shirt

WornOnTv.net is an interesting website that lets you know where to purchase articles of clothing that you may have seen characters on popular TV shows wearing. Even if you yourself aren’t all that interested in copying the fashion styles of TV characters, the website is still worth keeping in mind if you’re looking to buy a gift.

WornOnTv describes itself as follows:

The website compiles the shows from every known network. From the sun dress worn by Jessica Day on the latest episode of New Girl to the certifiably nerdy shirts of Sheldon Cooper on each episode of The Big Bang Theory, Worn on TV has every major program covered.

What’s more, the website will not only show you where to get which article of clothing, it will also tell you where you can find it for the cheapest price online.

6. Howlongtoreadthis

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kite runner read

Everyone always talks about wanting to read more, but with more digital distractions invading our lives at every turn, actually carving out time to sit down with a good book is more challenging than ever. Well perhaps plowing through a book might be more appealing if you happened to know how much of a time investment you were making.

Helping out in this regard is a website called howlongtoreadthis.com which allows users to see how long it would take them to read any book of their choosing. The way it works is simple and intuitive. Select a book, and then take a short 30 second reading test to gauge your reading speed. The website than does all of the heavy lifting and will let you know how long it will take you to finish that book you keep meaning to get to. It will also tell you how long the average reader will spend finishing the book.

The website has a library of over 12 million books so you should definitely find what you’re looking for.

7. Pizzacodes

Looking for a deal on some pizza? Simply type your address or zipcode into Pizzacodes.com and you’ll be presented with a Google Map display of nearby Papa Johns and Dominos Pizza stores with accompanying coupon codes for all sorts of deals. Yeah, it’d be nice if the selection of available pizza joints was greater than two, but if you’re looking to score some pizza on the cheap, it’s worth keeping this site in mind.

8. Forgotify

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forgetify

Sure, it’s easy to stay on top of whatever songs are at the top of the charts, but if you’re looking to impress/annoy your friends with some more obscure musical stylings, Forgotify.com is worth checking out. The premise of Forgotify is simple. It shuffles through songs that have never been played, not even once, on Spotify. It’s a great way to listen to either undiscovered gems, or horrific tunes that have never been played for a reason. Either way, it’s a fun way to kill some time.